Barbra Streisand returns to Brooklyn tonight. She’s playing the first of two shows at the new Barclays Center. Are the shows sold out? Let me put it this way: People who like people who like Barbra have stripped the place to the walls. There are a meager 750 tickets left on Stubhub.com, the secondary ticket seller (aka scalper). Most everything decent is gone. Prices are through the roof. For the front sections, people are paying thousands of dollars. For Saturday night’ shows, Stubhub is selling a few seats in Section Floor 1, right in front of the stage, for $22,000. That’s twenty two thousand dollars per ticket. And they will sell. They sold out for tonight. On Saturday Stubhub does have some cheaper seats for around $10,000.
A note on the secondary market: it is a strange place. Streisand is not doing this, but in some instances acts have been accused of collaborating with the scalpers, and taking kickbacks. There’s a fascinating piece of work done by a Nashville TV correspondent, Phil Williams, about Justin Bieber scalping his own tickets. http://www.newschannel5.com/story/19616981/documents-show-bieber-is-scalping-his-own-tickets. If you take time to read the documents Williams uncovered, it’s mindblowing. I am told there’s a distinct possibility that when the Rolling Stones tickets go on sale, they’re going straight to the secondary market. And the prices will be high.
